TV Party Tonight! #64

Let me take you back to a time when movies based on video
games was the hot new idea. This was the 90s. Thinking back on it, it’s
surprising that it was such a trend because it wasn’t particularly a good one.
None of those movies did very well, except maybe for Mortal Kombat. Maybe they
were going for name recognition alone, or something kids would drag their
parents to see. Remember Street Fighter? Super Mario Brothers? Tomb Raider?
Resident Evil? Not exactly Fellini films, but there you have it. At the bottom
of this pile is probably Double Dragon.

I was 100% on board with this movie when it came out. Since
it wasn’t going to show in the theatres in my little town, I had to wait for
the video release. When that happened, I rented it right away and watched it
over and over again. I don’t remember if I liked it, but I remember that, as a
kid, just the idea of watching a movie was cool, so watching something that was
referencing something I loved was even cooler.

The obvious thing to point out is that nobody thought Double
Dragon was a good movie. Not the makers, not the actors, and maybe not even its
audience. It has an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason. But what it does do is
fire off those neurons that make us nostalgic for the 90s and that means it’ll trigger
a cult following. And watching this movie so many years later certainly serves
to establish this as a bad movie, and for many reasons. For one thing, the story
is tedious, the pacing is slow, the dialogue is ridiculous, the martial arts
action sequences (what should be the bread and butter of this movie) are
boring, and the acting is wooden at best. The whole thing just kind of falls
flat on so many fronts. But that’s not to say there aren’t any redeeming
factors. Robert Patrick is the only person who seems to have gotten the campy
tone of this movie and is pretty great whenever he’s on screen. The special
effects are also pretty cool and edgy for the time. And, it’s nice to see a
movie like this, with so much against it, just be fearless and swing for the
fences.

Regardless, MVD has now released this movie in a collector’s
edition blu-ray, and what a job they’ve done. MVD clearly takes their work
seriously, and if this disc is any sign, one could consider them the Criterion
Collection of B-Movies. This collector’s edition brings Double Dragon in hi-def
to the US for the first time. It has an exclusive full length feature with the
making of the movie with the writers, producer, and actors who speak candidly
and lovingly about what went into making this movie. There’s also a segment
outlining the career of its producer Don Murphy, behind the scenes footage,
outtakes, the pilot for the animated Double Dragon series (which, yes, I
watched as a kid) and stills and art for the movie. All the work that went into
this collector’s edition is impressive, and serves to elevate this movie from
forgotten childhood memory to something worth archiving. This is undoubtedly
the definitive edition of Double Dragon. Well done, MVD. I’m hoping some other
less-than-superb movies will be part of your catalog. I’m sure the Collector’s
Edition of Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, Surf Ninjas, and
TMNT are just around the corner.

What we learn from the special features:

Double Dragon was filmed in Cleveland and they set the Cuyahoga River on fire for one of the sequences. If they waited a couple years, the river would have done it for them.

There are so many interviews with the production team, cast, and crew, and absolutely no one can say that this is a good movie. They’ll say there are parts of it that are fun, or work, but never “I love this movie!”

There are press clips in the bonus feature galleries. Included in them is a review detailing how this is one of the worst movies ever. Kudos to MVD for being in on the joke.